It is common practice to mount cylindrical clothes rods on end brackets engaging opposite rod ends. If the length of the clothes rod is relatively short and the rod itself is sufficiently stiff and strong, there is no need for an additional support intermediate the rod ends. That being the case, a conventional clothes hanger having its hook-like hanger engaged over the clothes rod is freely moveable between the rod ends.
In the event a longer clothes rod is needed, as in a double width closet, it will be recognized immediately that support of the rod intermediate its ends, is desirable if not necessary to prevent the clothes rod from bending or breaking under a heavy load. End brackets for supporting the opposite ends of the clothes rod are not suitable for supporting the rod intermediate its ends.
Typical of prior art developments to solve this problem is the shelf and pole bracket of U.S. Pat. No. 2,859,879 issued Nov. 11, 1958 to D. R. Rogers et al. wherein a shelf supporting bracket has a depending hook at the outer end of a horizontal shelf supporting arm. The hook is semi-cylindrical or U-shaped at its lower end for receiving a clothes rod or pole. While this arrangement has been used for a number of years, it has a major drawback. One cannot slide a clothes hanger along the clothes pole or rod past the pole engaging hook of the support bracket. Consequently, removal of the clothes hanger from the rod to the other side of the pole engaging hook is necessary.
A more recent U.S. Pat. No. 5,582,303, issued Dec. 10, 1996, to Stewart S. Sloan, avoids the aforementioned shortcoming of the Rogers et al. patent by providing a special formed hook depending from the outer end of a horizontal shelf supporting arm. The hook of this patent carries an arcuate clothes rod supporting member which engages and is fastened to the underside of a wooden clothes rod, leaving sufficient clearance for the unobstructed passage of a clothes hanger hook along the length of the clothes pole. However, the structure of this patent is not wholly satisfactory from a load bearing and structural standpoint.